Stuck in the Middle With You

I once worked with a great friend that loved to pull pranks. Let’s call him Dave, um, because that’s his name. Due to the advent of caller id Dave has had to retire one of his longest running pranks – the 3 Way.

Dave would get the phone numbers of two people or organizations that were either competitors or often had passionate but radically opposing views. With his multi-line phone and very quick fingers he would put his phone on mute, call both numbers, and bridge them together. This left each side wondering why the other had called them and the ensuing conversation of discovery left us in stitches. I’ll never forget the day that he linked Shane Jewelers with D Geller & Son Jewelers. I believe it ended when one side threatened to come over and kick the other’s tail.

Passion is an interesting and very misunderstood concept in the business world. At this moment you likely have a customer that loves what you do and you have a customer that is extremely irate with you. In between is everyone else.

The problem is that we are taught that one end of the spectrum is the opposite of the other and that people move up and down incrementally along the line as they increase or decrease their happiness coefficient. Maybe if we just apply a little TLC to those that seem to hate everything we do that we can move them closer to simply “dislike us”. So too we believe that if we apply that same TLC to those in the middle that we can move them to maybe “like us a little more.”

People at the extremes of love you and hate you have a critical thing in common, they have the capacity to take a strong position. They are passionate people. What separates them is simply their position. As Ben Zander, author of The Art of Possibility says “A cynic is a passionate person that does not want to be disappointed again”

People in the middle don’t typically take strong positions. They may like you or not. Let’s take a look at the same line with different words.

Companies that have great customer support departments know this and leverage their practice around the similarities of the extremes. They know that if you can satisfy the need of the most irate customer that they do not become a less irate customer, they become an equally passionate happy customer. The customer is passionate by nature – use that to your advantage.

They also know that people in the middle don’t usually migrate to the extremes. In other words, when a customer’s position changes it folds to the other side.

Conversely true, if wronged, passionate happy customers fold to the other side as well. If you don’t spend as much time with your happiest customers than you do with your most irate you risk getting a reverse fold.

Want a great reference account? Don’t look to those in the middle, go for the ones that are really irate. Make them happy and you are going to have one heck of a reference. Be very careful once they fold to the good. They still require an equal portion of the 80% time they were getting before, otherwise they will fold back.

So if you have the type of business where passionate customers make or break you (isn’t that all?), you have to pay attention to the extremes. The middle will likely remain the middle despite your best efforts. Consider giving 80% of your energy to the 20% on the extremes. They are your tipping point.

Question of the Day
How do you currently view and treat your toughest critics?